Lifetime Achievement Award

終 身 成 就 獎

LEE Chang-dong 李滄東

LEE Chang-dong began his career in stage productions in his 20s and later became a novelist. He made his debut as a feature film director with Green Fish (1997), a unique Korean film noir that also explored traditional genre conventions. He followed up his stunning debut with Peppermint Candy (1999), a film that experimented with traditional storytelling by employing a reverse chronology, and Oasis (2002), which used a stripped-down neorealism style to tell an unlikely tale of true love. The latter two films solidified LEE as one of Korea's most acclaimed filmmakers, earning accolades both at home and abroad. Oasis, in particular, earned LEE and lead actress MOON So-ri the Silver Lion for Best Direction and the Marcello Mastroianni Award, respectively, at the Venice Film Festival. In 2002, LEE served as South Korea’s Minister of Culture and Tourism. After leaving the position, he directed Secret Sunshine (2007), which won Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress at the 2008 Asian Film Awards. The drama also earned JEON Do-yeon the Best Actress award at the 60th Cannes Film Festival. LEE's fifth film, Poetry (2010), earned LEE both the Best Director and Best Screenplay awards at the 5th Asian Film Awards, in addition to many awards from around the world. Last year, LEE returned to directing with Burning (2018), which won the FIPRESCI prize at the 71st Cannes Film Festival and is nominated in eight categories at this year's Asian Film Awards.

李滄東 2 0多歲時開始參與劇場製作，後來成為小說家。他於 1 9 9 7年首次執導的《黑道初哥》，拍出自別 樹一幟的韓式黑色電影。第二部作品《薄荷糖》( 1 9 9 9 )則藉電影對人生進行探索，同時以逆時序方式講 故事，對傳統敘事方式進行實驗。2 0 0 2的《愛的綠洲》以樸實的新寫實主義風格講述如何排除萬難尋找 真愛的故事，這兩部電影奠定了他成為韓國重要導演的地位，為他在國內及海外贏得不少讚譽，特別是 後者在威尼斯影展獲最佳導演及最佳新女演員兩項殊榮。他於 2 0 0 2年擔任大韓民國文化及觀光部長， 卸任後執導《密陽》( 2 0 0 7 )，於 2 0 0 8年榮獲亞洲電影大獎最佳電影、導演及女主角等獎項，全度妍亦因 在本片的出色演技而贏得第60屆康城影展最佳女演員獎。李滄東第五部作品《詩》(2010 )同時於亞洲電 影大獎及康城影展奪得最佳編劇及最佳導演殊榮，又於多個國際影展獲獎無數。八年後執導的《燒失樂 園》( 2 0 1 8 )在第 7 1屆康城影展勇奪 FIPRESCI國際影評人聯盟獎，並在本屆亞洲電影大獎獲八項提名。

INTERVIEW 訪 問

Congratulations on your Lifetime Achievement Award. What does it mean to you?

A lifetime achievement award is very burdensome for me. I ask myself whether I deserve this award. I ask myself what I have achieved, and how valuable it is to the audience and filmmakers. I still have a long way to go and a lot of work to do. I see this award as a sign that I should work harder.

What are the essential qualities that a new director should have?

I want young directors to feel that they are special. It is necessary for a director to feel that he or she is one of a kind. Become a special director first, though no one knows if a special director will become a great director or not. What makes a great director? I don't know. I think only great directors can answer that question.

After years of filmmaking, what does cinema mean to you now?

For me, cinema is a means of communicating with people. I think the director is a person who communicates with the audience through film. I think of myself as a storyteller who makes film. I want to find interesting, meaningful stories and tell them to the audience through film. The subject of a story reveals itself when one is drawn to the story. I don't go looking for a story with a pre-set theme, but if my films seem to have a recurring theme, it's probably because I think about it a lot in my life. I did not set out to make films about social issues; I just ask questions about our lives and the world in which we live. You used to write your scripts on your own until recently, why?

I've been searching for my films’ stories on my own. It can be both good and bad to film one’s own script. While there is the advantage that the director understands the script better than anyone else, the director may also become confined in his or her own thoughts and images. After Poetry (2010), I decided to collaborate with another screenwriter for the first time and Burning (2018) is the result. [Cowriter] OH Jung-mi made me feel what I couldn’t feel, and she saw what I couldn’t see. I don't think I could have made Burning if I had stuck to writing scripts alone.

What do you think is the importance of film restoration?

I did a digital restoration of Peppermint Candy (1999) last year. Advances in digital technology allow for restoration to replicate the original intended image as closely as possible, and it can even improve colour or brightness. The importance of digital restoration is indescribable. Not only does it prevent the damage of countless films, it also revives films that exist only in warehouses or in fading memories; it gives them the chance to meet today's audience.

Is there any film you wish to see restored?

The film I’d like to see restored the most is LEE Manhee's Manchu (Late Autumn) (1966). The film’s print isn’t in South Korea at the moment, but rather in North Korea. I want to restore films whose prints can only be found in North Korea. It’s a project that many Korean filmmakers have been waiting for.

As the former Minister of Culture and Tourism, can you tell us about the South Korean Government’s effort in film restoration?

Since 2007, the Korean Film Archive (KOFA) has restored about 60 films under the governmentsupported digital restoration project. KOFA initially outsourced these projects, but it has since been able to do the restoration in-house since the opening of the new Archive Centre in 2016. It aims to restore about 30 films a year in the future.

Do you have any plans to make films outside Korea?

I’ve received offers from Hollywood, but I haven't found a project that I'm sure I can do well or that I think is worth doing. I don't think American, nonAsian and Asian films have characteristics that are easily distinguished. Also, Asian and Korean films cannot easily be boxed into a single category. Even within the category of Asian films, there are plenty of films that are not so different from Hollywood films in many ways. Audience from around the world understand your films with the assistance of subtitles. Do you think your vision are lost or compromised in the process of translation?

The speed of speaking is different from the speed of an audience member reading the subtitles, so it’s normal that the dialogue is omitted and shortened in subtitle form. In this regard, misinterpretation of subtitles is inevitable. I did not check how much the Chinese subtitles differ from the English subtitles in Poetry, but I can imagine that the translation is quite difficult, especially since there are poems in the dialogue. Anyway, subtitling tends to be overlooked in post-production. In fact, subtitles are much more important than we think, given that Korean films have consistently garnered attention and love from film lovers around the world over the past 20 years. Subtitles have a decisive effect on how foreign audiences understand films.

Please tell us more about filming the dance of Great Hunger in Burning

I want actors to not express the emotion of the character, but to rather live in the film as a person. This belief applied to Burning. The scene in which Hae-mi did the Great Hunger dance in the sunset particularly required freedom and improvisation. I wasn’t just worried about the movement of the actress, but also the movement of the camera behind her. The actress practiced pantomime and the Great Hunger dance of the Bush people. During filming, I let her move as freely as she could according to her emotions, and the camera followed her movement without missing the sunset.

INTERVIEW 訪 問

恭 喜 你 成 為 終 身 成 就 大 獎 得 主，請 分 享 一 下 感想。

終身成就大獎對我來說是莫大的負擔，我會自問 是否值得此項殊榮，究竟有什麼成就？對觀眾和電 影工作者作出什麼貢獻？從各方面看，似乎還有遙 遙長路要走，還有很多事情要做，所以我會以此獎 來勉勵自己繼續努力。

可否與年輕新導演分享一些經驗之談？

我希望年輕導演感到自己絕不平凡，你必須認為 自己是世上獨一無二的導演。沒有人會知道不平 凡的導演最終否能成為偉大的導演，但首先要做 個與別不同的導演。若問我怎樣才是偉大的導演？ 我不知道答案，只有真正偉大的導演才有答案。

從事電影工作多年，你對電影有什麼體會？

在 我 以 言，電 影 是 我 與 世 人 溝 通 的 方 式，身 為 導 演，就是以電影築起與觀眾溝通的橋樑。我以說故 事者的身份去拍電影，會找一些趣味和有意義的 故事來拍。我從來都不會預設主題，往往都是以故 事為主，然後主題自然會呈現出來。有人認為我的 電影經常重複一個主題，那可能是因為我經常對 此作出思考；我沒有刻意描寫社會實況，只是對我 們生活其中的世界提出問題。

你 以 往 都 是 獨 自 編 劇，近 年 為 何 會 與 其 他 編 劇合作？

我一直自己尋找拍電影的故事題材，拍攝自己撰 寫的劇本，這樣做有好處也有缺點。導演拍攝自己 寫的劇本會比其他人更了解劇情，但導演會不自 覺地沉浸於自己想像的世界裡。拍完《詩》( 2 0 1 0 ) 之後，我首次嘗試與其他編劇合作，而《燒失樂園》 ( 2 0 1 8 )則是合作的成果。編劇吳政美讓我接觸到 一些我感受不到和看不見的事，若是我獨自寫劇 本的話，相信就不會拍出《燒失樂園》了。

你對修復電影有什麼看法？

我去年剛為《薄荷糖》( 1 9 9 9 )進行數碼修復，多得 先進的數碼技術，令影片回復本來面目。我甚至可 以調校顏色和光暗，令畫面質素提升。我認為電影 數碼修復的重要性非筆墨可以說明，不僅可以保 存無數影片，令它們不至腐壞，甚至乎令很多在倉 庫內封塵多時的好電影重生，再次與觀眾見面。

有沒有希望修復的電影? 我最希望可以修複導演李晚熙的《晚秋》( 1 9 6 6 )， 世界各地的觀眾都是透過字幕欣賞你的電 影，你認為字幕翻譯會否影響電影的原意？ 這部片的拷貝現時不在南韓，但我知道北韓有拷 由於演員說對白的速度與觀眾看字幕的速度有 貝。我希望把那些在南韓已經沒有拷貝，而仍然可 異，所以做字幕時經常將原來的對白刪減，因此觀 以在北韓找到的電影帶回來修復，這是韓國電影 眾透過字幕看電影時，不免會出現誤解。我沒有將 工作者的願望。 《詩》的中英文字幕作比較，但我相信這部電影的 字幕翻譯是非常艱鉅的，特別是片中以詩詞寫成 你 是 大 韓 民 國 前 文 化 觀 光 部 長，可 否 介 紹 南 韓政府的電影修復政策？ 的對白。無論如何，我認為在後期製作過程中，字 幕是最被忽略的環節，但其實翻譯字幕比大家想 像的更為重要。過去 2 0年來，韓國電影在世界各地 自2007年開始，透過政府資助，韓國影像資料院到 廣受歡迎，而海外觀眾能否了解一部韓國電影，很 目前為止已經為超過 6 0部電影進行數碼修復。起 多時就取決於其字幕的好壞。 初都是找外國公司進行修復，到 2 0 1 6年我們全新 的電影資料館中心開幕後，則開始在國內進行修 復工作，現時更以每年修復30部電影為目標。 《 燒 失 樂 園 》內 的「 大 飢 餓 之 舞 」是 如 何 拍 成的？ 有沒有計劃到海外拍電影？ 我 要 求 演 員 要 活 在 電 影 內，而 不 是 抒 發 情 緒 的， 《 燒 失 樂 園 》就 是 以 這 方 法 拍 成 的。女 主 角 海 荷李活一直都有向我提出拍電影的計劃，但我暫 美 的「 大 飢 餓 之 舞 」一 幕 安 排 在 日 落 拍 攝，特 時尚未找到一部值得拍的電影。我認為美國電影、 別 需 要 自 由 和 即 興 的 發 揮，要 顧 及 的 不 僅 是 女 非亞洲以至亞洲電影好不容易才拍出獨特的風 演 員 的 動 態，還 要 控 制 攝 影 機。那 一 場 戲 事 前 格，而亞洲電影和韓國電影不應該被包括在同一 需 要 很 多 準 備 功 夫 和 綵 排，女 演 員 要 接 受 默 劇 類型之內。雖然很多亞洲電影，甚至是韓國電影， 和 非 洲 叢 林 人「 大 飢 餓 」舞 的 訓 練；到 了 真 正 在某程度上與荷李活電影都差不多。 拍 攝 時，我 讓 她 盡 情 隨 著 感 情 去 發 揮，然 後 讓 攝 影 機 跟 隨 著 她，把 舞 姿 和 日 落 攝 入 鏡 頭 內。